Gamebird, You've had lots of helpful comments today, and I am sure more are yet to come. My answer on beds being oriented north-south or east-west is going to make me sound wishy-washy, but I think either one could work equally well. Most of my neighbors that have veggie gardens run their beds from north to south, but a fellow gardener who lives a couple of miles from me runs his east-west. I have some beds, about 65% of them, that run north-south, and the remaining 35% run east-west. Our veggie garden is on a serious slope, so the contouring of the garden beds was a very deliberate decision to slow down the runoff of water and also to minimize erosion. The classic recommendation in most parts of the country is that you should run your beds from north to south. I think the intent is that your rows get a more equal distribution of light that way. What is more important than the orientation of the beds, though, is the selection of where to plant your veggies. The general rule is to put taller crops in the northernmost rows of the garden so they won't shade your other crops. Here in Oklahoma, where the summers are very long and insanely hot, I deliberately use okra, corn, amaranth and other tall plantings (like pole beans and other trellised crops) to shade crops that benefit from a little shade, like sweet and hot peppers. I like your idea of improving the soil first, then building the beds, and lining the pathways....I was gently trying to lead you in that direction, without sounding like your bossy sister! LOL Torrential rainfall IS a huge problem here when it occurs. Just today we had 3" of rain in less than 4 hours, and you should see the erosion that has gone on today as the water rushes downhill to the creeks that will carry it to the Red River. (It is not at all one of our heaviest rainfalls....two years ago we had 9.25" in one day, and almost 8" of that fell in 4 hours.) So, check out how the water drains before you start doing too much, and the info will be very helpful in your planning. Even though you may not be putting in that water feature for a couple of years, plan it out now so you can take advantage of a naturally low-lying area or can plan to site your water feature so it helps absorb excess rainfall and runoff. We have several water features, some manmade and some natural, and they attract wildlife. Since you have a young child, though, it probably is wise to wait until she's a little older. One thing to remember as you plan your landscape is that the soil on even a small plot of land (and yours is not small by any means) can vary greatly. Even though we have mostly clay, we do have one band of very deep, sandy soil (which I love, love, love), so check your soil in various places to be sure you know what you have. When you do a soil test, the advice is the same. You dig up soil from several locations and mix it together prior to the soil test, so the results will give you an overall average for the whole area. Regarding Randy's comment about shrubs, I'll just say that his comments are right on. Most people plant shrubs too close to their homes and the shrubs eventually get too large, become a problem and have to be removed. You can avoid this through a very careful selection of dwarf shrubs AND by being sure to plant them further away from the house....say 4' to 5' at the closest, not 1' to 2' or 3'. Be sure you understand the shrub's MATURE height and plan accordingly. As Randy stated, I am a big advocate of firescaping....which is landscaping in a way that will help prevent your home from burning during a wildfire. Keeping plants that burn easily further away from the house is an important part of firescaping. We have always had wildfires in this part of the country, and we always will. Some years they are dreadfully bad, and other years they are not. It is wise to design your landscape in a way that will help preserve your home if the worst possible thing....a raging wildfire....occurs. I never worried about wildfire that much until the 2005-2006 wildfire season, which I think was the worst one in recent Oklahoma history. During that year, our very young and very small volunteer fire dept. had over 240 calls (most years prior to that we had 40 to 50 calls per year), many of which were large, raging wildfires. It changed the way I do a lot of things, and I am now very careful about planting anything close to the house if that plant could help a fire climb up onto the house. It's just one more thing to think about, but an important one. Finally, I know you are eager to do your landscaping, but go slow and make sure you understand just how hard it is for plants to get through our long, hot summers. When we say that, it is because we know from experience that summer's heat here can be VERY cruel and very hard on plants. In your part of the state, you also have to plan for the recurring sleet and ice storms that can cruelly destroy gorgeous trees in a matter of hours. (So, stay away from weeping trees, weak-wooded trees and delicate trees that can't hold a huge load of ice.) Understand, too, that Oklahoma's climate is one of wild swings and unpredictable changes. It can, literally, be 60 or 70 or 80 degrees, sunny and clear in the morning and then an Artic cold front can come out of Canada in a matter of hours, dropping the temperatures 30 degrees or more, and bringing cold rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow or a mix of them. In the summer, rain can be scarce and temperatures brutal. Plants have to be TOUGH to survive here, so decide in advance how much (or how little) pampering you're prepared to give your plants, and plan accordingly. It is so much fun reading your plans and imagining how it all will work out. I hope you'll keep us all posted on your progress. Dawn

Thanks for the input so far! Here's a little insight into how we live and a couple answers: I am planning on a 90 degree turn in the staircase. I didn't know there would need to be special considerations for this. We are doing SIPs walls and are meeting with them tonight. They'll also be doing our stairway so I'm sure they'll tell me all I need to know about it. I'll be sure to mention it. Stairs sure are a pain! If you've been reading here you know what I am going to say! LOL There's no powder room near a family entry to the house and no closets for all the 'stuff' that accumulates in what I call a 'back hall'. Picture your children trekking through the house with muddy feet to get to the toilet. The extra space you see in the laundry room will be where we hang coats and take our shoes off/throw bookbags, etc. We just won't be doing lockers (at least right away). I am planning on doing a drain in the garage with hot and cold spout near for muddy feet/dog/etc. The closet in the hall was my "stuff" closet along with storage in the basement. The one bedroom that has its only small window on the screened in porch is going to be sad. This made me laugh. :) How I picture this room being used: nursery for 2nd baby, then kids can share a room and this will become the play/toy room upstairs. At some point another kid can move back in if they want or move downstairs, etc. Could you build a house with more space on one level and a smaller (or no) basement? With two acres, I'd prefer to 'spread out'. What appeals to you about having a lower level? I like one level living for the majority of my time. Basements are the norm around here - we live in tornado alley. 1. Is there really a need for back to back entry doors? Could you eliminate the interior entry door and just make that a wide cased opening? How about moving your coat closet up to left side of that entry area and changing the door swing on the outermost door to a RH swing? The entry is this way because my DH's two desires when planning this house: That people don't see the kitchen from the front door and that randoms that do come to our front door can't see into the house. I do plan to have coat hooks there inside the entry for when guests come. Our guests are very casual. Your porch is too shallow for a table and chairs; need 12 foot depth. Good to know. Thank you. 2. Your first floor baths both have windows by the shower/baths. I'd keep windows away from baths if possible for privacy purposes and to keep water away from the interior side of windows (and therefore, the inside of the walls). Can things be adjusted so vanities are closer to the windows? I've nixed the one in the secondary bath. I think I might like a glass block one in the master shower though. This may be backwards and sound dumb but we currently have one in our shower and we just hang a clear shower curtain along the back wall. Light in and no water on the window :) I'm open to suggestions on that room though. The closet in the basement for the bedroom....maybe I can jut a closet into my craft room/office. I think that is what I'll do :) I didn't figure I'd get as much room under there as what is drawn. The kitchen is actually decent sized in my mind. There are cupboards along the south wall in there if you didn't see those. They can hold all the sometimes used stuff. There are more in there than at most of my family/friends houses and my current house. Our current dining table is a 4 seater and when we need to get a bigger one I'm actually thinking I'll be a bench along that dining wall so the table can sit closer to it. The living room could be a little bigger but hey, such is life when you are sticking to a budget I guess. My current living room is 12x11. There isn't a pathway through it though so that will make a difference. If we need to spread out we'll go to the basement. I live in 1000 sq ft now. I'm good at organization and stacking things to the ceiling of closets, etc. 3000 is a mansion to me. :) Thanks again! Oh and I'm attaching the plan that I tweaked to make mine if you feel like taking a peek. Here is a link that might be useful: Original house plan

Quickly, because I have to get going, shampoo where the car was parked. Repeat in 2 weeks and again 2 weeks later. Don't rototill. UC Verde only where you get 6-8 hours of unfiltered sunlight. Where do you live? Your zones don't help. Organic fertilizer now will help the soil. Helping the soil is a good thing at any time. Do this especially in the car parking area. You won't necessarily sprout weed seeds in the fall rain. It depends on many factors.

I find there is an enormous people spending time on this board showing everyone why they need an architect and do not know what an architect does. In response to what I believe you meant, let me comment on the current discussion and answer this question. First, I am not sure I need to know what an architect does to know what an architect does for me. However, that is not really the point of this, so I will ignore that portion. There was a study done on architects quite some time ago, that informed my thoughts then, if this has changed please let me know. I am going to get some of this wrong but believe I can relay the basic ideas. The study selected three groups of people (1) office workers, (2) upper class college students in a selective institution, (3) and architects. They then presented all three groups with design problems. The people in the office had interaction needs and environmental preferences, while the physical space had environmental conditions. All three groups were then asked to create the best office in three different physical spaces. The environmental results were then scored on a 3 point scale: met requirement, partially met requirement, or didn't meet requirements. The interaction scores were then very slightly modified by those environment scores. This was all known to the participants and individually these interaction modifications were fairly small, I don't remember the exact numbers, but the cumulative effect could be significant. The architects performed significantly better than either other group. I don't remember the exact explanation proposed for this, but I do believe the idea was that architects tend to focus on some type of synergy between physical space and needs, while other groups tend to focus on one or the other. ---------------- So, what I believe architects do in a nutshell: Take my requirements and make all the things I need a little bit better by creating an environment in which those things can happen a bit more pleasurably or with a little less effort. Having said that, I believe that architects suffer from Baumol's cost disease and the value hurdle is becoming increasingly difficult for architects to meet. I personally find the value proposition for using an architect diminish as constraints increase. At this point, if I am developing something for sale, the quality of the design takes a back seat to the quality of the finish carpenter.